Following yesterday’s passing of Richie Havens, we present this feature that originally ran in the November 2008 issue of the magazine.

Photo by Jean-Marc Lubrano

“Atmosphere has always been my crutch,” says 67-year old veteran folk singer Richie Havens. “If I can make the atmosphere than I can walk.” This approach has served him well, particularly as he neared the end of his Woodstock set which opened the festival. “They kept asking me to play four more songs and I ran out of material,” so Havens allowed the collective consciousness to bring a song to him.
“As I began playing I realized that this is the freedom my generation had been looking for since the ‘50s.” He began singing “Freedom” and would add hymnal verse sections that sprang forth from his long past church choir days. The resulting performance was a highlight of the historic weekend.

Quite heady stuff for a Brooklyn doo-wop enthusiast who used to wander to Greenwich Village to paint faces at poetry readings. “Anyone who sat to be painted became a victim of my questions,” he laughs. But it was his questioning that ultimately inspired the blues and folk singer Fred Neil to encourage Havens to teach himself the guitar. Though Havens inadvertently developed his unique left-thumb-over-the-top-of-the-neck bar chord style, he was just as soon learning songs that he could go home and share with his Manhattan-averse Brooklyn friends.

Havens cut his teeth in The Village and ultimately was asked to join a tour which featured big bands fronted by Herbie Mann, Mongo Santamaria and best of all for Havens, the legendary Nina Simone. Havens was hired to offer instrumental accompaniment to the MC but, “one night he switched roles and put me on the spot by having me sing.”

He must have done well, because not long afterward he was summoned to Simone’s dressing room. “I was like, ‘Yeah sure, I can’t even play guitar correctly and Nina Simone wants to see me?” Simone did, and she wanted to know if he knew the song, “Sinnerman.” Havens performed it for her and she promptly told him he would be joining her onstage that night.

While Havens would go on to write many great songs over his career (Bob Marley’s “African Herbsman” is an adaptation of Havens’ “Indian Ropeman” ), he quickly became associated with riveting covers, starting with “Eleanor Rigby” on his debut release. A master of many Dylan songs, “Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” presented him the greatest challenge. “Each line had no relation to the one before it, or the one after it. I struggled with it for eight days because I looked at it like a movie. Once I looked at it like a slide show, I learned the song in ten minutes.”

The soft-spoken Havens continues to be adept at refocusing attention on powerful lyrics. The latest disc, Left to Crown, finds him stripping The Who’s, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” of its bombast, and also delivering Jackson Browne’s “Lives In The Balance” with measured urgency (the latter features Derek Trucks, whom Havens describes as “a spirit with a wonderful covering walking among us” ). The album also boasts seven originals.

Havens’ peaceful manner seems to come from his palpably spiritual outlook, the long, gray beard and ornate silver jewelry only adding to it. He is quick with a laugh and seems genuinely grateful for regular weekend gigging. And yet, as always, he remains very much in the moment. “When I go onstage, I know the first song I’m gonna sing and the last song,” he reveals. And does he determine the rest? He pauses and smiles knowingly: “By the atmosphere.”